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WHY ROBERT WILLIAMS IS UNDERRATED


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Celtics

Celtics

+1 player ($0) +10 picks,
Cap Impact + $2.1M

+ 0  Wins

+0.15  MPG

+5.71  Off.

+0.27  Def.

Thunder

Thunder

+1 player ($0),
Cap Impact - $2.1M

+ 0  Wins

-0.15  MPG

-5.71  Off.

-0.27  Def.

Why Robert Williams might be the most underrated center in the league.

Rudy Gobert is one of the most underrated centers, but he was picked in the all star game, and has been in the all nba defense. However, someone that might be most disrespected is Robert Williams. Robert Williams is a good rebounder, an excellent help defender, one of if not the best rim threats, and a good passer. Despite all of that, he has been a part of many trades, and a lot of them the Celtics would be getting little to no value for him. This will show why he is one of the most underrated players in the NBA today.

Robert Williams went to Texas A & M and played two years there, playing about 25 minutes both seasons. His awards in college were 2016-17 All-SEC, 2 time all SEC All-defense, SEC all freshman, and 2 time SEC DPOY. He was picked in the late first round by the Celtics.

In his first year, he didn't play much, getting 8.8 minutes in 32 games. However, his field goal percentage was 70 percent. In 2019, Robert Williams had many injuries, from the back, to illnesses resulting in a lot of time loss. Robert Williams has had a good amount of injuries this season, but he has been able to play in most of the games this year.

WHY HELP DEFENSE IS UNDERRATED AND MAN-MAN DEFENSE OVERRATED:

When many look at how Ben Simmons plays great one on one defense, many react something like he can guard 1-5 he is my DPOY. However, it’s more like 2-4 but that's just the eye test and the box-score test. Yes, Ben Simmons makes 1 player's life harder, but how about the whole team's life harder? For example, people say oh Ben Simmons held Lebron to whatever, and let's say it saved the team 4 points compared to what Lebron gets on average. Good, it’s 4 points but if you make every shot that the opponent takes at the rim, force them to shoot differently, force them to take harder shots and that saves maybe 6 points. If you make 30 shots 20 percent harder, then that's 6 points saved. Bill Russell said “The idea is not to block every shot. The idea is to make your opponent believe that you might block every shot.” Yes, Robert Williams tries to block every shot, but his opponents believe that he might block every shot. Players like Robert Williams who are elite rim-protectors force tougher shots, and make everyone’s job on the opposing team more difficult. Being a great one-on-one defender is great, but it isn't making everyone’s job harder, just that one player you're guarding.

WHY NUMBERS ARE NEEDED FOR DEFENSE

For offense, you can look at shot attempts, free throws, points, free throw attempts, efficiency percentage, and that's easy. For passing, you can look at assist percentage, and assists. Easy enough. For rebounding, you can look at rebound percentage, offensive rebounds, total rebounds and defensive rebounds. However, other than steals, blocks, fouls, there isn't much more for the non-advanced stats. Yes, there is the eye test but try paying attention to 10 players at once. Even if you're looking at 5 players in total and only care about those 5 players, it’s still hard to tell how their defense is, and how well they are playing overall. This is why numbers and advanced stats are needed. Yes, they can be not accurate, but along with the eye test and that, it should be pretty accurate.

EYE TEST

OFFENSE

Robert Williams might be the best rim-threat in the league. His numbers offensively don't make someone who hasn’t watched the fame be amazed. His season averages are 8.1 points, 7 rebounds and 1.8 assist. No, that isn't amazing, but a lot of it is how he gets those points. When you have a center who the opposing team knows will throw the ball up if they move 1 step to close, then that makes the opposing center have to guard him very carefully, which opens up driving opportunities. By doing that, this allows better shots at the rim, and more opportunities because of his ability to score if his teammates throw it up for him.

PASSING: When the Celtics ball movement has been best, the Celtics offense has been running through Robert Williams. When he isn't, the Celtics ball movement has been worse. For example, the Hornets game, one of their worse games. Robert Williams wasn’t in, so that was part of the reason why the Celtics were not passing, and moving even if they didn’t have the ball.

INPACT

The eye test is a big part of deciding how good a player is, but it’s hard to concentrate on a bunch of players, and know how well they are doing. Advanced stats are good to help decide how good a player is. Although they can be flawed, if a player consistently has good or bad advanced stats, then its almost always mostly accurate. The eye test is important, and so is basic stats, but that's only half of it. The rest are the advanced stats. Below are Robert Williams advanced stats just for a few.

Top 45 win shares, top 15 BPM, top 35 in Vorp, top 10 in win shares per 48 top 5 per for a center, top 20 for offensive rebounding percentage

If you don’t know what those advanced stats are, there are some quick definition below, and also a link to a bunch of stats. I don't believe that per was on it, but i used the trade machine for that one.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2021_advanced.html

WIN SHARES: The idea of win shares is to give individual players credit for their team winning, based off of what they did. One won game is equivalent to one win share that gets shared around the whole team. For example, if a team wins 50 games in a season, then there would be 50 win shares to go around the team.

WIN SHARES PER 48: Win shares but per 48 minutes they played

PER: How efficient/productive a player has been

Offencive rebounding percentage: How many offensive rebounds that player gets. It is a good stat instead of just total rebounds or rebounding percentage because offensive rebounds are harder to get. Defensive rebounds a lot of the time go to the player who is there, and is more based out of luck. Offensive rebounding percentage is about how good of an offensive rebounder they are, which is better.

BPM: How many points per 100 possessions their team is better or worse with them on the floor. For example, a player with a 2 BPM means that their team would be 2 points per 100 possessions better with them on compared to off, comparing that player to average stats.

Vorp: Value over replacement player.

WHY ITS IMPORTANT:

When someone looks at Robert Williams basic stats, such as points, rebounds and assist it doesnt look amazing. Backup center. However, when you look at advanced stats, it is much more then that. It’s the same with the eye test, although the eye test does look a little worse then these advanced stats. When watching him, he is always a threat to score because if the opposing center goes one step too much, the player with the ball mostly throws it up, and the celtics easily get 2+ points on that possession. Along with the eye test, and the advanced stats, both suggest that he is one of the most if not the most underrated centers in the league.

IMPORTANT NOTES: 1: I didn’t pick and choose the advanced stats because it was more favorable to him, I generally use those. 2: When it said top whatever for the advanced stats, i just did whatever i counted to, and added a few. For example, if I counted 42, then i would write top 45 for the stat, to add a few, partly just in case i miscounted, and partly to not try and not have it be right where he is, for example if one of the advanced stats was 43rd, to not say top 43. 3: If i made him look better from those advanced stats, that is an accident, i tried my best, and part of the reason why i added a few spots was to try and not let that happen.

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